brainless

I found a video from Fallujah today (couldn't have found it earlier since it was published only this morning or something). A little memory refreshing: The city of Fallujah has been victim of US assaults twice, once in April 2004 (the pictures from Abu Ghurayb were better for the US government than those from Fallujah - what's torture against genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity?) and November 2004 (that time it was completely sealed - about no pictures leaked out...) -> http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

yes, many countries indeed did ratify the treaty ... but how many of those asked the people? As I've pointed out before, the constitutional treaty is not a treaty of the people as it should be, if we are supposed to accept it...I don't think that this constitution would harmonise that many areas since I've seen the words "... according to national habits" and similar phrases quite often...anyways, I just got a nice sheet of paper from the german socialist party which pays attention to the points I've mentioned a little bit more closely - and even with more attention it does not become better :/

Donots - In too deep... murder is the case, let me find so many ways to kill myself,feeling out of place, I guess it's nothing new these days - we all lost anyway.this is gonna be better, gonna change myself like the weather...

right now it's Anti-Flag with Underground Network... just take a look around this country, just take a look around the world:all we get is neofascist, rightwing f***ing propaganda.It's not our media, it's their f***ing media.Raise your voice, stand together,raise your fist - tell the truth!

Thanks for reminding me about this, haven't done that in a year or something ... that's not a new hint but definitely more useful than any hack-the-registry-hint

yep, it has ... I've just read an article which showed that it's german government which is responsible for the high gas prices in this country since about 75% of all the money spent on gas goes into the state's pockets (though I don't think that's too bad ... we just need some politicians who use the money to actually do something instead of shortening budgets everywhere without telling anyone where the money's supposed to stay instead...)

yep, I hope they get the idea to ask the people what they actually want now ... the Treaty of Nice wasn't that bad, I could have said ok to that one (I'm not even saying a united Europe would be bad).Here in Germany we had 95% of all votes cast in favor of the Constitution while there was about noone among the people who said "Yes, I want this constitution", which led to stupid excuses by politicians like Mr. Stroebele (who's said to be quite far on the left side) who excused himself with "It hurt me to vote 'Yes'" or, some other member of the Green party who said that "My 'Yes' was actually meant to be a 'No'". In the last speech before the vote, our chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said "That it's all settled now and there's no way for a 'No' so it's unnecessary to have too close a look at the one or other sentence.". With sentences like this ... who's supposed to trust our politicians?

uhm ... ok, my geography isn't too good (though I know where to find the Iraq on a map, instead of many people who were about to invade that country )

Luckily, not many people outside the Axis of the Willing support the Coalition of the Willing (and even within the Coalition of the Willing, there are some countries where the people strongly oppose the government's participation) :rolleyes:I'll send you a PM for the songs...

Yes, a European Constituation might be an opportunity. But this Treaty on a constitution for the European Union is not a chance but a disaster. Most articles which brought a good deal of social security for the people in the Treaty of Nice [Nice as in italian city, not as in nice] have been reduced to mere phrases in the Constitution. On the other hand, the articles about economics state very clear, what the EU does and what it not does. Same goes for the articles on military matters. 1) In the Treaty of Nice from the year 2000, the Union guarantees "a high grade of social security" (Art. I-3), in the draft constitution this is not the case anymore. Article I-3, paragraph 3 now contains the words "[promotes] social security". In the articles III-205 and -209, the constitution does not "aim at full employment" anymore as the Treaty of Nice did but it aims at "a high level of employment". The "social economy" has become an "open economy with free competition" [equals Neoliberalism ... kinda like what you guys in the USA have] in Article III-177. The right to access to services of social security is not everyone's right anymore but depends on "Union and national laws and customs" (Art II-94). Once again Article III-177: This article clearly states that the people's struggle against mass unemployment (about 11% in Germany, about as much in other states of the "old Europe") and social security are less important than stable prices and a "healthy monetary situation". 2) If one of the Union's goals is to promote peace (I-3), you could think that disarming at least parts of the member states' armies would be considered. But the exact opposing thing is the case: All member states have to "gradually increase their military capacities" (Article I-141). To watch this, a European Defence Agency and Crisis Reaction Forces are being created. The CRF's may move into war all around the world ... and the european parliament doesn't even have to be bothered with this questions until half a year after the forces have been deployed... 3) In a Union which requires all states who want to join to be democratic, you might think that this is because the Union itself is democratic. Nada. The Parliament is not even equally strong as the Secretaries' Council. The Parliament may not propose laws, the European Commission's president is elected by the Parliament but the Parliament may not propose any candidates - it's the Council which proposes the next president of the commission. By the way, the Councils are not elected by the people. In foreign and security policies, the Parliament does not have any voice at all, the Council is just required to "hear" the Parliament and "keep it up to date" (Article I-40). Actually, this constitution does not even try to fight tax evasion, tax dumping etc. It actually guarantees the special status of the Isle of Man and other tax havens. well, that's just what I have to say about the differences between the Treaty of Nice and the Constitution, which will hopefully fail in more nations. There are some articles in the german constitution (GrundGesetz/GG), which I would have loved to see in the european constitution as well: The social state's duties as in article 20GG, the obligation of property to use it for the public's well-being (Art 14, p2GG), open economic regulations without the state (or the Union) having to privatice services but also the possibility to socialise companies if need be (article 15GG), or, most important, the prohibition of attack wars (article 26GG). There is no way I can accept this constitution, and I know that many fellow germans think so, too. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to vote on the european constitution. Anyway, if they want to force this on us - there's still article 20, p4GG: "All Germans have the right to resist against anybody who tries to abolish the order as stated in this article, if there is no other way." (by the way, the european constitution does not have contain the right to resist against an unjust government). No, it even establishes the death penalty for all those who resist against the european union, as you can read in a thread I've posted here quite some time ago. And I think the proposal to re-vote in those nations where the people voted against this constitution is shi... not ok. Accept the people's decision - or do you want to revote ... and revote ... and revote ... and revote ... and rev...? to come back to the original question: So what's next for the EU? Back to the Treaty of Nice and re-negotiate it to fit onto the EU of 25 [info for the non-EU-people among us: Earlier this year, we welcomed 10 new member states, making it a EU of 25 instead of a EU of 15]. Even though I don't think this Treaty's the best we could have, it's still wayyyyy better than the Constitution... ... by the way, it's quite interesting to compare the Treaty of Nice and the Constitution. Try to order them from your state's agency for political education or whatever institution does this job. In Germany it's the Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung, bpb (great: in the european parliament's german office, they charge 25 euros for a copy of the constitution and it's impossible to get the Treaty of Nice there. The bpb charges 2 euros protection fee each... Notice from BuffaloHELP: Merged as per request.

The OLMUN 2005 began today, so I thought it might be time to tell some other people about the idea of MUN conferences, what one can experience there etc etc. The basics first: In an MUN conference, students from all around the city, country or --as is the case at the OLMUN-- around the world come together to simulate a meeting of the United Nation's General Assembly (GA) (and, depending on the MUN's size, the Secuity Council (SC), the ECOnomic and SOcial Council (ECOSOC) and several UN committees like the Disarmament Committee (DC), Political Committee (PC), Environmental Committee (EC), Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the Special Conference (SpeC)). I actually dared to speak in front of the General Assembly today - 650 people listening to me, the delegate from Amnesty International, talking about the human rights' situation in the world nowadays. Luckily, the delegation representing the USA doesn't seem to be liking verbal confrontations too much since I attacked them pretty openly in one part of my opening speech: ... thanks to Anti-Flag for their song "Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.)" for inspiring me on the last sentence (their lyrics go like "Number one in liberation, liberating life from bodies"). Anyway, I've got to go and spend some more time on my resolution on Crime prevention and criminal justice, I'm still not stating clearly and un-misunderstandable that I would like to see police/law enforcement forces punished when they're abusing their power to violate human rights...

that's not that funny a story ... a friend of mine began to use the nick Mindless, another friend -Shameless- followed, I thought brainless would be cool [now Mindless' brother's nick is Fearless; a friend of Fearless' listens to Useless, ...]yeah, the MUN conferences are way cool, as far as I know there are some in the USA as well (there are rumors that the first MUN conference ever was located in the UN headquarters). Today I dared to speak in front of the General Assembly for the first time ever, me standing in the front and 650 people listening to me, wow ... unfortunately, the delegation of the USA did not realize that I verbally attacked them. I'm representing Amnesty International and my opening speech contained a section about the human rights... I'm beginning to slide off-topic, I'll open a new thread for this...

hehe right now, I'm participating in the 5th OLMUN conference (-> http://www.olmun.org/) [MUN conferences are quite similar to what I've heard about debating clubs ... with the difference that you represent an UN member state or -NGO/OO and that most MUNs are on an international basis]. Apart from that I'm swimming, riding my bike, have the white/yellow belt in JuDo [i'm just great, am I not?], reading quite a lot, and there's my computer well ... here in Germany, about everything a student does is on his or her own since most schools don't offer any extracurricular activities at all :/

I've got quite a few songs which make me think so I'll list you my favorites and some quotes from the lyrics to show you why... Donots - Saccharine Smile ("She plays boys like a game of cards, dances to the beat of breaking up"; " don't believe a word from her dead lips, don't like the way she moves her hips, she ain't no sugar cube to me") Silbermond - A stueckl heile Welt [a piece of perfect world] (its lyrics are composed from ad slogans; if all those products/comapnies kept their promises we'd live in a perfect world...) Anti-Flag - School of Assassins ("Has your life got you down? Are you feeling lost and blue? I?m thinking maybe a career change is the best answer for you. You?ve never lived, never known true romance, till you've been taught the steps to the death dance. Fort Benning, Georgia's gonna teach you how to move!")

Fahnenflucht - Ziviler Ungehorsam [ok, for those who don't speak german, here's a translation: Desertion - Civilian Disobedience], I simply love this song ... come give me your hand - for civilian disobedience and common resistance

same here, pizzicato :rolleyes:we're paying about 5 euros per gallon so you wouldn't even end up somewhere near half tank with 10 bucks...

apart from a phone number written with an edding perm marker which still hasn't disappeared from my right leg completely after 5 days and 4 showers: none...

welcome to the club, eleven :(I've got a similar relationship, this girl told me something like 9 years ago that we should be friends, with the difference that I got over it already.My advice: If you value her friendship (yes, friends and nothing more), keep it the way it's always been. It's not always easy but if you keep in touch, that makes a good friend.If you really like her (hey, you've still got a crush on her after all these years ), I'd suggest you have a talk with a friend of hers you trust, just like snlildude said. But after all, you will have to talk to her in person.The worst case would be that she doesn't want to talk to you ever again (happened to a friend of mine) but at least you know what's going on then - and if she does that, the friendship wasn't that good anyway.As a "therapy" for your crush on her, you could try asking her to look for girls which might fit to you in her opinion (don't forget the conversation - if you just go to her and say "you've gotta search a girl for me" that's not good); in my case that girl has come up with this idea. Unfortunately (or luckily?) they're all on the friendship-trip so I've got way more female friends than male friends - after some time of hanging around with them, it might happen that you start looking after boys just because that's what you always do when you're out (no, I'm not gay - just judging whom of my friends could try her luck on him)...

well ... if it didn't make any profit at all it would've been replaced by cheap housing by now but unfortunately, there are more than enough people to be able to pay for that... actually, the President of the US might be able to stay in such a flat - there are some corporations who are more than willing to pay their part of this even though none of their employees stay there...

Most of the articles I read about Afghanistan in recent months said that it's mostly calm there, at least those in not-too-critical newspapers and also many politicians said there's nothing to worry about in Afghanistan. But in the last week, two newspapers wrote that some countries are going to send more soldiers to support those who are already there. The german Spiegel bloated plans to send the german KSK [the Bundeswehr's special forces in creation; right now about 1000 soldiers] in and that a small group of them is already there on an intelligence mission and, even more interesting, that the KSK is supposed to take control of an entire sector. Today, the british Scotsman (1) writes that there are plans to send 5500 british soldiers to support the 500 already there. To give you an overview of how many troops are there already: Last year, the US army's paper Stars&Stripes (2) wrote that there are 17,900 US soldiers in Afghanistan and that this number will probably be kept steady. Usually, the USA send the largest part of an international troop, so I suppose there are about 25,000 soldiers already in Afghanistan. That gives us about 25% of additional troops, if the articles in the Spiegel and the Scotsman are right. A stable situation but we still need more soldiers to control it? ok, it might be stable but it's definitely not that way of stable our chief militarys want it to be... (1) http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/secret-uk-troops-plan-for-afghan-crisis-1-1390424 (2) http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

lol at all your stories, mine comes close to C"C's:One day, I've been strolling around in the woods with Birthe, a very good friend of mine. Somehow we got a debate on police brutality and whom of us experienced the worst things out on the streets [after all, that's a tie without any cops involved - I've seen a friend of mine being hit by a stone; she actually had stone-to-back_of_head.contact with the very same stone] and in the aftermath of this we were talking about some other stuff connected to this. A couple of steps later, I stopped talking mid-sentence 'cause my head hit a low branch while my feet tried to walk on. well, other people smash their whole body into trees...

I don't like WindowsXP but unfortunately it has the only GUI which runs on my comp. Win9x don't support my comp anymore (too much RAM) and there is, until now, no Linux distribution which supports my graphics setup - a nVidia geForce 4200Ti 64MB in the AGP-slot and an ATI 3D Rage Pro PCI 4MB. Even in windows it took me about an hour to set it up (who could guess that I have to disable my network and sound cards before I activate the ATI card so the ATI card finds resources it can use?)...

*update* George Galloway pulled a nice stunt in front of the US senat - they accused him of corruption and he not only defended himself but accused the US government of twisting/creating "facts". Transscript and live video (4 minutes live on MSNBC; according to the transscript the session took about 47 minutes) can be found here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8869.htm It's pretty much to read but definitely worth it

there is something like commercial badminton? never heard about that o_Oanyways, the most boring so-called "sport" IMHO is soccer, maybe it's just because soccer's the most popular sport in germany...

yeah, these two are classics :lol:If you ever walked through London (or probably any other British city), you might have noticed all these cameras on the walls, the "Closed Circuit TV"-system. Most of the people I've been to London with did not feel that these cameras might be something one should be afraid of but I thought it's scary if there's someone who can trace all your way from the hotel through the city and back.Nowadays there's just an endless tape running on the other side of these cams and everything's untraceable after a day or something but what will happen if there's a high-end computer running some expensive face recognition software? I'm always open for new developments but something like this is nothing a sane person would do.Anyway, something to make the CCTV-system look better: On our second day in London, Lena's backpack was stolen in a subway station. Half an hour later some cop returned it to her...... Orwell was a little bit mistaken with the time but it's a pity that many people read this book but not many recognize that orwell's world is not too far away from what we live in ... 2030 is my guess :/